Springfield officials are getting closer to having a defined plan that would dictate where facilities for cultivating and selling medical marijuana can go in the city.

The Illinois Medical Cannabis Pilot Program, which took effect Jan. 1, allows for 21 marijuana cultivation centers and 60 dispensaries to be located statewide, scattered throughout Illinois State Police districts.

Aldermen at their committee of the whole meeting next week will consider a proposed ordinance that asks the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission to hold a public hearing on amending the city’s zoning code to set forth a plan regarding the cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana.

“We’re attempting to set the parameters so we could react to it if something comes in,” Mayor Mike Houston said.

While the city “hasn’t had a lot of interest” thus far from groups who want to bring in medical marijuana facilities, Houston said that, as a regional medical center, he “fully expects” medical marijuana cultivation and dispensary facilities will be coming to Springfield.

The state law allows people with chronic medical conditions including AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis to purchase marijuana in prescribed amounts to alleviate pain and nausea associated with the conditions themselves or their treatments.

The proposed amendment to the city zoning code, which closely follows the state statute, would restrict medical marijuana cultivation centers from being within 2,500 feet of schools, day care centers and residentially zoned areas of Springfield. Cultivation centers also could not be within 1,000 feet of other cultivation centers or dispensaries.

Dispensing facilities could not be within 1,000 feet of schools and day care centers and could not be within a house, apartment, physician’s office or in an area zoned for residential use. The setbacks would be measured from the property lines. Use of marijuana products on the dispensary property would be prohibited.

Based on the setback regulations, it’s likely that any medical marijuana facility within the Springfield city limits would have to be downtown.

The proposed regulations also deal with the number of on-site parking spaces, exterior signage and call for video surveillance on the property.

The ordinance that will come before aldermen next week directs the mayor to execute a petition detailing those changes to Chapter 155 of the zoning code and requests that the planning and zoning commission hold a public hearing on the changes and then report back to the city council with recommendations.

City council coordinator Joe Davis said that may take a while, especially since the proposed changes could be controversial.

“We could see that in November, possibly,” Davis said of approval of the zoning revisions.

The Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission has been working with both city and county officials to draft similar ordinances that would govern medical marijuana facility zoning locally. The approval of medical marijuana rules by a state legislative committee last month clarified some lingering questions for local officials.

Page 2 of 2 - The state law that Gov. Pat Quinn signed last year technically took effect Jan. 1, but it wasn’t until the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules approved the medical marijuana regulations in mid-July that state agencies could begin putting out applications that potential growers and sellers will need in order to get into the medical marijuana industry in Illinois.

“We know what the rules are now,” said Norm Sims, executive director of the regional planning commission.

Sims couldn’t pinpoint exactly how many groups have expressed interest in bringing a cultivation center or dispensary to the area or how interested the inquirers have been, but he guessed about a half-dozen have called the planning commission.